NATO defense ministers opened a two-day meeting in Brussels on Thursday, with the crisis in Macedonia and the United States' quest for an anti-missile shield high on their agenda.
The meeting at NATO headquarters is the first for Donald Rumsfeld as US defense secretary, and is taking place ahead of next Wednesday's gathering of leaders of the 19 NATO allies, including President George W. Bush.
In opening remarks, NATO Secretary General George Robertson stressed that missile defense was a work in progress, and rejected as "pure fiction" reports of a transatlantic split over the issue.
"We're here today to talk, to consult, to share our thinking and to work together towards a better future -- no more, no less than that," Robertson said.
Rumsfeld, who was a US ambassador to NATO in the 1970s, warned his colleagues "not to rest on the accomplishments of the 20th century," according to speaking notes distributed to journalists.
"The Cold War threats have receded, thanks in no small part to the work of this alliance," he said. "The new and different threats of the 21st century have not yet fully emerged -- but they are there."
Speaking on Wednesday, Rumsfeld told reporters that the United States has begun testing new approaches to missile defense that inevitably will collide with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty.
European NATO allies are skeptical about the need for a system intended to guard against what Washington regards as a growing missile threat from North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
But they are taking part in intensive consulations launched by the Bush administration which also include Russia, whose defense minister Sergei Ivanov is to join his NATO counterparts on Friday.
The NATO defense ministers will also be reviewing the Balkans, including the conflict in Macedonia where the government said Wednesday it wanted to declare a state of war and mobilise its army after five soldiers were killed in an ambush by ethnic Albanian rebels.
Robertson said NATO "utterly condemns" the killings.
"Such cowardly, senseless attacks will not change any political goals," he said. "They must cease. I urge the men of violence to law down arms and to take part in normal political processes."
Robertson urged the government in Skopje to "perserve" with efforts to address the grievances of Macedonia's ethnic Albanian minority, while applying "necessary and proportionate military force" against the rebels.
But he did not refer to Skopje's warnings that it could proceed with the declaration of a state of war -- a move that was opposed Wednesday by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has been striving for weeks to keep the conflict from exploding into a new, all-out Balkan war – BRUSSELS (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
